Ken Shamrock Reveals How He Was Convinced To Take The "D-K Flip" From Joey Ryan
After years away from the ring, Ken Shamrock returned to pro wrestling recently and has been engaged in a feud with Joey Ryan. Shamrock was probably thinking, "I returned for this?" as Ryan has a unique gimmick that is centered on his penis.
Shamrock talked about his initial reaction when he found out Impact wanted to pair him with Ryan when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"At first, I was like, 'no'. Then I started thinking about it and thought it would be a great match. It was something that most people didn't think would happen. So, I jumped in with both feet and it would be something fun for the fans. I even ran it by my kids to see what they thought and they were thumbs up," revealed Shamrock.
"We did the match and I was pleasantly surprised working with him. He's a great person and his gimmick is different, but people are loving it. For me it was an exciting and very good opportunity to wrestle someone like him."
It had to be quite a shock for some of Shamrock's peers to see The World's Most Dangerous Man wrestling someone who uses a penis flip as a move. Shamrock talked about this match being a match of the times and something that may not have happened years ago.
"I wanted to kick it around [in my head] because anytime I do something that might be controversial, I wanna run it by my family. I wanna make sure they are gonna be understanding and it's not gonna be anything that will hurt them," Shamrock said before adding that when he realized no one would be hurt he jumped in.
"The only thing that bothered me was Jim Cornette made mention of me doing this because I needed money. It's funny when people say that because, yeah, isn't that we all do it for? [Laughs] It was a stupid comment, yeah of course I did it because I wanna get paid. And I'll keep doing it because I wanna get paid."
Many old-school wrestlers aren't too keen on Ryan's gimmick and Shamrock was asked if it's time for veterans to move on and embrace gimmicks like this.
"We saw people grinding and dancing in the middle of the ring. We saw people dropping butts on people's faces and rubbing it in their faces," Shamrock said. "There's so much in the wrestling ring that is entertainment, so when people say, 'Oh, I'm not doing that. That's below me.' This is entertainment. If it's not something you're gonna do or be involved in, then you're in the wrong business. In this world people wanna see different things and things that shock them. So you better step into another business if you're not being willing to be involved in stuff like this."
Shamrock defeated the younger Ryan and talked about what the victory meant to him.
"It was exciting. I didn't go into this with the idea that I wanted to do it because I wanna win. I did it because it would be something that people didn't expect," stated Shamrock. "It would shock and excite people because that's what I love doing: entertaining fans?
"The most important thing to me is people appreciating what I'm doing in the ring."
Ken Shamrock will compete for the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship as part of Impact Wrestling's TV tapings in New York on Thursday and Friday. For more information about Impact and tickets please visit ImpactWrestling.com.
Ken's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of today's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In the full interview Ken discusses how he's physically holding up, what brought him back to Impact Wrestling, the statement he wanted to make at Bound For Glory, being convinced to work with Joey Ryan, the pro wrestling business evolving, his upcoming Impact World Championship match against Sami Callihan, Tito Ortiz vs Alberto Del Rio and more. You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.